Customer Reviews

The Best Of Bing Crosby: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection)

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20th Century Masters: The Best Of Bing Crosby (Millennium Collection) gives us twelve tracks from one of the greatest crooners of all time: Bing Crosby. The material here is excellent. Unfortunately, however, we only get twelve tracks; and I cannot fathom how they could pick any twelve tracks and slap on the title of the "best" of Bing Crosby and think we'd mistake it for a complete and thorough retrospective.

However, as I said, what we do get is very good--we just don't get enough of it. The album starts off with Bing singing "Swinging On A Star." The backup vocalists sound great but they always let Bing have the spotlight. Bing never misses a note and his voice never sounded better, either! "I'll Be Seeing You" is a beautiful, romantic and touching number that Bing delivers with great sensitivity and panache. The musical arrangement makes good use of the brass.

Listen also for Bing's unbeatable "White Christmas;" this melancholy ballad still moves me with its beauty and I always enjoy hearing this number--even in January!

"Don't Fence Me In" features Bing singing his best and he delivers this so well. The Andrews Sisters accompany Bing and the horns make this a splendid number "Play A Simple Melody" has a fine, catchy melody that stays in your mind after you hear it and Bing does this to perfection.

The CD ends with Bing singing "Around The World (In Eighty Days)." Bing shows off his full set of pipes and no one could ever sing this as well as Bing does.

The liner notes are somewhat sparse but we do get the song credits and the artwork is nice.

Bing Crosby true blue fans will not be pleased with this CD; they are better off looking for box sets of CDs by Bing. This album is really for the casual fan who isn't too concerned about having a real retrospective of Bing's artistry.

There is simply no way to condense Bing Crosby's prodigious musical catalgue into 12 songs and these are far from his greatest hits or strongest vocals. It's almost insulting. Bing's great songs from his golden era of the 30's and early 40's comprise 12 great songs in *one* year.

But is you just want to sample the incomparable magic of Bing, then this is a good pick. The songs selections are thankfully of early vintage, when Bing's voice was indeed a compelling musical instrument. But if you're seriously interested in understanding and appreciating Bing Crosby, please consider buying the better 4-disc collection offered on Amazon.

If you love Bing Crosby then this is the one for you! Bing sings his heart out on this recording.His mellow style is just the thing to soothe.

Sooner than I expected and in tip top shape. Works like a dream :) Thank you for being on such a timely manner.